<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >DROP ROLE</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79"><LINK REV="MADE" HREF="mailto:pgsql-docs@postgresql.org"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="PostgreSQL 8.3.6 Documentation" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="SQL Commands" HREF="sql-commands.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="DROP OWNED" HREF="sql-drop-owned.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="DROP RULE" HREF="sql-droprule.html"><LINK REL="STYLESHEET" TYPE="text/css" HREF="stylesheet.css"><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><META NAME="creation" CONTENT="2009-02-03T04:34:16"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="REFENTRY" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="5" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >PostgreSQL 8.3.6 Documentation</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-drop-owned.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-drop-owned.html" >Fast Backward</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-droprule.html" >Fast Forward</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-droprule.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><H1 ><A NAME="SQL-DROPROLE" ></A >DROP ROLE</H1 ><DIV CLASS="REFNAMEDIV" ><A NAME="AEN56715" ></A ><H2 >Name</H2 >DROP ROLE -- remove a database role</DIV ><A NAME="AEN56718" ></A ><DIV CLASS="REFSYNOPSISDIV" ><A NAME="AEN56720" ></A ><H2 >Synopsis</H2 ><PRE CLASS="SYNOPSIS" >DROP ROLE [ IF EXISTS ] <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >name</I ></TT > [, ...]</PRE ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN56723" ></A ><H2 >Description</H2 ><P > <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >DROP ROLE</TT > removes the specified role(s). To drop a superuser role, you must be a superuser yourself; to drop non-superuser roles, you must have <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >CREATEROLE</TT > privilege. </P ><P > A role cannot be removed if it is still referenced in any database of the cluster; an error will be raised if so. Before dropping the role, you must drop all the objects it owns (or reassign their ownership) and revoke any privileges the role has been granted. The <A HREF="sql-reassign-owned.html" ><I >REASSIGN OWNED</I ></A > and <A HREF="sql-drop-owned.html" ><I >DROP OWNED</I ></A > commands can be useful for this purpose. </P ><P > However, it is not necessary to remove role memberships involving the role; <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >DROP ROLE</TT > automatically revokes any memberships of the target role in other roles, and of other roles in the target role. The other roles are not dropped nor otherwise affected. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN56733" ></A ><H2 >Parameters</H2 ><P ></P ><DIV CLASS="VARIABLELIST" ><DL ><DT ><TT CLASS="LITERAL" >IF EXISTS</TT ></DT ><DD ><P > Do not throw an error if the role does not exist. A notice is issued in this case. </P ></DD ><DT ><TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >name</I ></TT ></DT ><DD ><P > The name of the role to remove. </P ></DD ></DL ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN56746" ></A ><H2 >Notes</H2 ><P > <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > includes a program <A HREF="app-dropuser.html" ><I ><I >dropuser</I ></I ></A > that has the same functionality as this command (in fact, it calls this command) but can be run from the command shell. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN56751" ></A ><H2 >Examples</H2 ><P > To drop a role: </P><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >DROP ROLE jonathan;</PRE ><P> </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN56755" ></A ><H2 >Compatibility</H2 ><P > The SQL standard defines <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >DROP ROLE</TT >, but it allows only one role to be dropped at a time, and it specifies different privilege requirements than <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > uses. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN56760" ></A ><H2 >See Also</H2 ><A HREF="sql-createrole.html" ><I >CREATE ROLE</I ></A >, <A HREF="sql-alterrole.html" ><I >ALTER ROLE</I ></A >, <A HREF="sql-set-role.html" ><I >SET ROLE</I ></A ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-drop-owned.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-droprule.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >DROP OWNED</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-commands.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >DROP RULE</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >